美国国家公共电台 NPR--Ridley turns a horrific true story involving Hurricane Katrina into a scripted drama

Ridley turns a horrific true story involving Hurricane Katrina into a scripted drama

Transcript¹

The Apple TV+ series Five Days at Memorial explores a terrible question: How did 45 patients die at a New Orleans hospital after Hurricane Katrina? Executive producer John Ridley has answers.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

How 45 patients died in a New Orleans hospital after Hurricane Katrina is the true story that inspired the Apple TV+ series "Five Days At Memorial." NPR TV critic Eric Deggans spoke² with the executive producer about why this story still resonates.

ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE³: When John Ridley was first asked to help turn this horrific tale into a scripted drama, he sent a New York Times Magazine story about the tragedy to his father, a retired⁴ doctor. Ridley, who once served as a commentator⁵ for NPR, won an Oscar for writing the screenplay to the 2013 film "12 Years A Slave." He had a major question for his dad. What did he think of allegations that some health professionals there euthanized patients rather than abandon them when the hospital was evacuated⁶?

JOHN RIDLEY: I expected fully⁷ that he'd say, well, I would never do that. Are you kidding me? His response was, I'm glad I wasn't there, and I'm glad I didn't have to make those decisions. If he's not willing to indict⁸ or exonerate⁹, I wasn't going to go into the story and agendize (ph).

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: We are watching a Category Five hurricane, Hurricane Katrina.

DEGGANS: "Five Days At Memorial" leverages¹⁰ an ace¹¹ cast and detailed¹² special effects to tell its story. Staff, patients and area residents seeking shelter at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans thought they had survived the worst when Katrina passed through the city in 2005. Cherry Jones plays the hospital official in charge during the emergency, who realizes the hospital hasn't prepared for an important eventuality.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "FIVE DAYS AT MEMORIAL")

CHERRY JONES: (As Susan Mulderick) There is no plan for evacuating¹³ the hospital if it's flooded. There's a plan for a mass casualty event, a civil disorder¹⁴ event. There's nothing in there about 2,000 people, 200 of them patients, cut off, stranded¹⁵ in a hospital without power.

DEGGANS: Ridley, a Black man who's focused much of his work on exploring race, prejudice and oppression, says he wanted to show how systemic bias¹⁶ led to poor, often non-white patients getting abandoned.

RIDLEY: There's a very bottom lining¹⁷ of human life. And once you do that, once you get into these aren't really people, they're numbers, they're statistics, they're acceptable losses or whatever - are we surprised that something like this would happen? The thing that's really frustrating¹⁸ to me more than anything is just can you present a story where the system is the bad guy?

DEGGANS: The series almost didn't get made at all. It was based on a 2013 book which resulted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times Magazine article. Producer Scott Rudin tried to develop it as a possible film. Later, producer Ryan Murphy considered it as an installment¹⁹ of FX's "American Crime Story" anthology series. Ridley remains²⁰ angry that some TV executives seemed skittish²¹ about developing a story centered on terrible allegations against doctors during a pandemic.

RIDLEY: That was very painful that, you know, in a world where there's so much media and there's so much storytelling that people are averse²² to anything that challenges, adverse²³ to anything that - well, this may take a little bit more to get an audience to come around to it. It's not - no spoiler alert - there's no happy ending.

DEGGANS: Ridley credits fellow executive producer Carlton Cuse, an executive producer on series like "Lost" and "Bates Motel," with calling him in and ensuring the series eventually got made. Despite differing explanations over how the patients died, the series presents compelling evidence that Dr. Anna Pou, a surgeon played by Vera Farmiga, oversaw²⁴ euthanizing patients. In real life, a grand jury declined to indict Pou, who denied wrongdoing, leaving open troubling questions about the ethics²⁵ of it all. "Five Days At Memorial" explores these issues carefully. It's crafted by an executive producer who remains angry that certain people still bear the brunt of such problems.

I'm Eric Deggans.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

5 commentator   

n.注释者，解说者；实况广播评论员

参考例句：

• He is a good commentator because he can get across the game.他能简单地解说这场比赛，是个好的解说者。
• The commentator made a big mistake during the live broadcast.在直播节目中评论员犯了个大错误。

6 evacuated   

撤退者的

参考例句：

• Police evacuated nearby buildings. 警方已将附近大楼的居民疏散。
• The fireman evacuated the guests from the burning hotel. 消防队员把客人们从燃烧着的旅馆中撤出来。

7 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

8 indict   

v.起诉，控告，指控

参考例句：

• You can't indict whole people for the crudeness of a few.您不能因少数人的粗暴行为就控诉整个民族。
• I can indict you for abducting high school student.我可以告你诱拐中学生。

9 exonerate   

v.免除责任，确定无罪

参考例句：

• Nothing can exonerate her from that.任何解释都难辞其咎。
• There is no reason to exonerate him from the ordinary duties of a citizen.没有理由免除他做公民应尽的义务。

10 leverages   

促使…改变( leverage的第三人称单数 )； [美国英语]杠杆式投机，（使）举债经营，（使）利用贷款进行投机

参考例句：

• Additionally, this approach leverages the benefits of incremental and full backups. 除此之外，这一个作法也使渐近式以及完全的备份变得容易。
• A simple formula for building mutual value-creating relationships with consumers leverages dialogue, data, and insights. 与客户建立共同的价值创造关系，一条简单的准则就是利用对话、数据和洞察力。

11 ace   

n.A牌；发球得分；佼佼者；adj.杰出的

参考例句：

• A good negotiator always has more than one ace in the hole.谈判高手总有数张王牌在手。
• He is an ace mechanic.He can repair any cars.他是一流的机械师,什么车都会修。

12 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

13 evacuating   

撤离，疏散( evacuate的现在分词 )； 排空（胃肠），排泄（粪便）； （从危险的地方）撤出，搬出，撤空

参考例句：

• The solution is degassed by alternately freezing, evacuating and thawing. 通过交替的冻结、抽空和溶化来使溶液除气。
• Are we evacuating these potential targets? 能够在这些目标地域内进行疏散吗？

14 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

15 stranded   

a.搁浅的，进退两难的

参考例句：

• He was stranded in a strange city without money. 他流落在一个陌生的城市里， 身无分文，一筹莫展。
• I was stranded in the strange town without money or friends. 我困在那陌生的城市，既没有钱，又没有朋友。

16 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

17 lining   

n.衬里，衬料

参考例句：

• The lining of my coat is torn.我的外套衬里破了。
• Moss makes an attractive lining to wire baskets.用苔藓垫在铁丝篮里很漂亮。

18 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 installment   

n.(instalment)分期付款；(连载的)一期

参考例句：

• I shall soon pay the last installment of my debt.不久我将偿付我的最后一期债款。
• He likes to buy things on the installment plan.他喜欢用分期付款法购买货物。

20 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

21 skittish   

adj.易激动的，轻佻的

参考例句：

• She gets very skittish when her boy-friend is around.她男朋友在场时，她就显得格外轻佻。
• I won't have my son associating with skittish girls.我不准我的儿子与轻佻的女孩交往。

22 averse   

adj.厌恶的；反对的，不乐意的

参考例句：

• I don't smoke cigarettes,but I'm not averse to the occasional cigar.我不吸烟，但我不反对偶尔抽一支雪茄。
• We are averse to such noisy surroundings.我们不喜欢这么吵闹的环境。

23 adverse   

adj.不利的；有害的；敌对的，不友好的

参考例句：

• He is adverse to going abroad.他反对出国。
• The improper use of medicine could lead to severe adverse reactions.用药不当会产生严重的不良反应。

24 oversaw   

v.监督，监视( oversee的过去式 )

参考例句：

• He will go down as the president who oversaw two historic transitions. 他将作为见证了巴西两次历史性转变的总统，安然引退。 来自互联网
• Dixon oversaw the project as creative director of Design Research Studio. 狄克逊监督项目的创意总监设计研究工作室。 来自互联网

25 ethics   

n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准

参考例句：

• The ethics of his profession don't permit him to do that.他的职业道德不允许他那样做。
• Personal ethics and professional ethics sometimes conflict.个人道德和职业道德有时会相互抵触。